Why do we die?

Discussion in 'Biology & Genetics' started by Norsefire, Feb 2, 2008.

  1. fusion4577 insane, atheist, and not dead Registered Senior Member

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    stars are fusion reactions. how the hell does a inanmine object want a human being?
     
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  3. Norsefire Salam Shalom Salom Registered Senior Member

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    A bunch of astronauts?
     
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  5. Beans Yee-Haw Registered Senior Member

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    I cant help but wonder if we will ever be able to transfer consciousness from one body to another. If we could just "body swap" in a sense, we could live forever.
     
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  7. draqon Banned Banned

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    thats what death is for.
     
  8. Crunchy Cat F-in' *meow* baby!!! Valued Senior Member

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    The best you can hope for is a longer life span or a technolgy that can simulate your brain (although that is more like a clone)... but then again even brain simulation will run into limits for storage.
     
  9. Norsefire Salam Shalom Salom Registered Senior Member

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    Beans had a good idea. Why not "body swap"?
     
  10. Crunchy Cat F-in' *meow* baby!!! Valued Senior Member

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    How do you 'transfer' your 'mind' to another body? The human brain (and brain stem) is responsible for everything... what you think, feel, hear, see, remember, recognize, etc.

    Maybe you're thinking of clonging yourself with a complete memory... its still a clone though.
     
  11. Yorda Registered Senior Member

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    We never die, only our bodies die. Bodies get old because they are constantly recreated... the cells are replaced... a copy of a copy of a copy... until the body can no longer receive and transform the energy. All magnets lose their energy after awhile, but it's possible to recharge them.

    Everything dies because everything changes, the only thing that never dies is me (you), because I am "nothing" (that contains everything).

    I was, but I didn't really notice it. I have a better question for you: why weren't you born as me?

    The brain is more like a TV that receives a signal. The TV does not create the broadcast, it just interprets the signal.
     
  12. Crunchy Cat F-in' *meow* baby!!! Valued Senior Member

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    No it's not. Please take some basic courses in biology / physiology.
     
  13. Yorda Registered Senior Member

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    To say that the brain is responsible for everything in the human body is like saying that an engine makes a car run. While it may sound true, the engine can't really do anything without the driver, and the brain can also do nothing without the soul.

    To switch to another body is no more weird than switching a car.
     
  14. Crunchy Cat F-in' *meow* baby!!! Valued Senior Member

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    'Soul'? This is a biology / genetics sub-forum not a religion / parapsychology / pseudoscience one.
     
  15. Enmos Valued Senior Member

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    We die to make place for others..
     
  16. Myles Registered Senior Member

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    What do you mean by a soul ? Is it material or immaterial ? Evidence for its existence ?
     
  17. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    Warning from the Moderators' community:

    This is a place of science, and in particular you're posting on one of our "hard science" boards, not politics or art. The fundamental principle of science is that the natural universe is a closed system whose behavior can be understood and predicted by using theories derived logically from empirical observations of its past and present behavior. This principle is itself a scientific theory and it is recursive, i.e. the scientific method applies to it. It has been tested for five centuries and has never been disproved. We have no reason to doubt that we will continue to understand more of the remaining secrets of the natural universe by using scientific theories.

    An explanation of a phenomenon that involves the concept of a "soul" relies, by definition, on the existence of a supernatural universe that cannot be observed. It is therefore not only unscientific but antiscientific, because it in essence gives up on science, saying, "We'll never understand the universe this way so we might as well do it my way."

    To post an antiscientific theory on one of our hard science boards is trolling. If you want to talk about souls, you're welcome to do so on the Religion, Philosophy and Crackpottery boards. But you can't do it in a section reserved for biology and genetics.
     
  18. Beans Yee-Haw Registered Senior Member

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    Everything else is replaceable except the brain, how long will it be before we learn to move that? I understand the INSANE complications, but we've gone from not having electricity to having nukes and flying through the air, who knows whats next?
     
  19. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    The brain isn't enough. You might be able to build an electronic analog that will contain all of a person's thoughts and memories at the moment of death. But our thoughts and actions are also guided by many other factors such as secretions from our endocrine system and our reactions to physical stimuli such as pain and hunger. Not to mention, how much of our personality is shaped by the certainty of death, both of ourselves and our loved ones?

    Creating a replacement brain is a good start. But that person won't be YOU unless he shares a lot of other attributes with you.
     
  20. Chatha big brown was screwed up Registered Senior Member

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    Nothing is perpetual, change is the only constant.
     
  21. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    I recently read an article on this in the Washington Post. (Sorry, there are too many interesting articles to save them all so I don't have it.) According to the report they have found little threads on the end of the strands of DNA which cannot replicate. Each time the DNA replicates each replica gets only half of the thread. Eventually they split so many times that there isn't enough of the thread left to do its job (whatever that might be) so the organism dies.
     
  22. Frud11 Banned Banned

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    You're talking about telomeres and the telomerase enzyme. This is thought to be closely linked to how long a cell lasts, and pre-programmed death (apoptosis), or cell obsolescence. A "use by" date.
    Maybe we can "fix" this, or reverse the telomere "disappearing act".
     
  23. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

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